First taste of "Scottish weather" here!

The other day whilst flicking through some of my photographs which I've taken since I've been in Australia, I remembered that when we were at the zoo last week, we spotted one of those planes which writes messages in the sky. Pretty sure it's the first time I've ever seen one in real life, and it was quite cool watching it go back and forth, trying to work it what it was writing. Turns out it was some kind of website, but I haven't been on to look at what it's about yet. I guess the advertising has worked though, since I'm now passing on the message to anyone who's reading this blog!

The other thing I saw last week, which I also forgot to mention in a previous blog, was the motorbike riders we spotted whilst out one night down at the Rocks - the part of the city right next to the Harbour Bridge. Motorbike riders alone of course isn't very exciting news, except these guys were all wearing onesies! It was quite a sight, and lots of passers-by were stopping to take photos and videos. Not something which you see every day anyway!

On Tuesday this week, I had another long lie - I'm really enjoying not having any consecutive days of uni classes, quite unusual that every other day is the "weekend" for me here. I got up and headed up to uni since I had to go to the campus bank branch to sort out some things, and also to buy my harbour cruise ticket. The harbour cruise was an event organised for the Wednesday night, for all of the International Students once more. I definitely considered it as an opportunity not to be missed, so quickly snapped up a ticket. Tuesday afternoon was fairly chilled as I did some work for class on Wednesday and then went for a swim in the outdoor pool in Victoria Park. Tried to take a quick picture, since it's a really nice pool, full Olympic sized and set in the picturesque surroundings of the park - however, photography at a swimming pool isn't exactly encouraged, so the photo I took is a bit rubbish!

Wednesday saw me take in another full day of classes which ended at 6pm; not leaving much time to walk home, drop off my bag, get quickly changed and head up to Darling Harbour before our cruise left at 7pm! To make matters worse it was pouring rain - quite unusual here, but it meant we had to jump in a taxi to save getting soaked on the walk to the harbour. Usually, a taxi would be quicker, but in a large city like Sydney, traffic is a nightmare and progress was terribly slow. Eventually we reached the harbour with around 5 minutes to spare - relief!

Apart from the rain, which came in spells throughout the evening, the harbour cruise was a lot of fun - we got some great views of the city skyline at night, and captured some great photos on the trip too. It was also good to catch up with some of the other International Students who I hadn't really seen since the first week of orientation and events, and meet some new people once more. Towards the end of the evening, there was a bit of an unexpected treat - I had been chatting to a Norwegian girl on the upper deck of the boat, near the Captain's area, and we were really, really cold, so she asked the Captain if we could step inside the cabin! It was much warmer and he was also fine with us having a go piloting the ship! We got to take in the sights of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House on the way back from the best seat in the house!

Today is now Thursday 8th August, which means I haven't had any classes today, so had a quiet morning followed by a walk around some parts of the main city where I hadn't visited so far. I didn't stay out long since the weather was still horrible - back in the flat no, it's beginning to get dark and the rain is still on and off every half hour or so. Although I did wander down a street in Chinatown on my way home, where there is a seafood restaurant with large fishtanks outside. One of the tanks contained huge crabs; I got a picture which I'll post below, but they were quite incredible! I've never seen any so large before, even in a zoo or aquarium - unbelievable! Also quite a significant date today, because a few months back the Sun newspaper ran the headline that today would be the day Manchester United unveiled Cristiano Ronaldo, after completing his transfer from Real Madrid - I'll believe it when I see it!

Just dawned on me that the photograph above does absolutely no justice to the size of those animals - they were HUGE! Consider that the tank is probably about 3-4 feet wide.

The other thing which I did this afternoon was purchase a ticket for Stereosonic, which is a huge dance music festival here at the end of November. It's held at the Olympic Park, where the 2000 Sydney Games were located, it's two days long and the line-up is fantastic - Calvin Harris, David Guetta, Zedd, Above & Beyond, Alesso, Sebastian Ingrosso, Showtek, Bingo Players and loads more! Should be a brilliant weekend to celebrate the end of exams!

I'll try and do another update in a few days.

Jamie